HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023-10-03; Beach Preservation Commission; ; City of Oceanside Phase 2 Sand Nourishment and Retention Pilot ProjectMeeting Date: Oct. 3, 2023
To: Beach Preservation Commission
From: Kyle Lancaster, Parks & Recreation Director
Staff Contact: Michael Tully, Parks Planner
michael.tully@carlsbadca.gov, 442-339-5724
Subject: City of Oceanside Phase 2 Sand Nourishment and Retention Pilot Project
Recommended Action
Receive an informational report from a representative of the City of Oceanside on phase two of
its Sand Nourishment and Retention Pilot Project, including the RE:BEACH Oceanside Coastal
Resilience Design Competition (Exhibit 1).
Discussion
Through phase two of its Sand Nourishment and Retention Pilot Project, the City of Oceanside
seeks to develop a program that will determine an offshore source of high-quality sand for
nourishment projects along Oceanside’s beaches, while simultaneously designing and
permitting a sand retention mechanism or structure that will help retain placed sand. The
design of the retention structure is being developed through a global design competition led by
GHD Inc. and its subconsultant Resilient Cities Catalyst.
In the spring of 2023, the City of Oceanside launched the RE:BEACH design competition. The
RE:BEACH project team is composed of City of Oceanside’s Coastal Zone Administrator Jayme
Timberlake, GHD Senior Coastal Scientists Brian Leslie and Nick Sadrpour, Resilient Cities
Catalyst Co-Founder, Sam Carter and Associate Director, Alex Klein. An advisory panel/jury was
assembled by the project team to assist the City of Oceanside in selecting a design firm finalist.
The following three design firms were advanced as finalists for the RE:BEACH competition:
•SCAPE Landscape Architecture with ESA and the Dredge Research Collaborative
•Deltares with Deltares USA, and MVRDV•International Coastal Management
The project team expects the three design teams to explore a variety of design options,
including but not limited to dunes, cobble berms, artificial headlands and reefs, as examples of
nature-based or nature-inspired coastal features that can work together to create a resilient
and sustainable sandy shoreline. All designs will be guided by the design criteria, which sustains
Oct. 3, 2023 Item #3 1 of 24
a focused mission to construct an innovative, multi benefit sand retention project on the City of
Oceanside’s beaches that serves both local and regional benefits.
The design criteria guidelines were provided for the physical, environmental, financial, social
and regional components of the project and are included in the Oceanside Design Competition
Solicitation Package (Exhibit 1, Attachment A).
Public Workshops:
•The first public workshop was held at the Oceanside Council Chamber on Tuesday, Aug.
29, 2023. The workshop was an initial open house style, followed by formal
presentations from the three design teams. Carlsbad staff attended the workshop.
•The second public workshop is scheduled to be held on Oct. 17, 2023
•The third public workshop is scheduled to be held on Dec. 13, 2023
The winning design will be presented to the Oceanside City Council for approval in January
2024. Upon a passing vote, the winning design will move into final engineering and
environmental compliance review.
Next Steps
Staff will stay in communication with the City of Oceanside staff regarding significant
developments on phase two of the Oceanside Beach Sand Replenishment and Retention Project
and convey them as needed.
Exhibits
1.Phase 2 Sand Nourishment and Retention Pilot Project, Oceanside Coastal Zone
Management.
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Phase 2 Sand Nourishment and Retention Pilot Project
Oceanside Coastal Zone Management
Carlsbad, Beach Preservation Commission meeting – Tuesday, October 3rd, 2023
On January 25, 2023, the Oceanside City Council reviewed and approved a Professional Services
Agreement with GHD Inc for Phase 2 of the Sand Nourishment and Retention Pilot Project. Through this
Project, Oceanside seeks to develop a program that will determine an offshore source of high-quality
(i.e. larger grain size) sand for nourishment projects along Oceanside’s beaches, while simultaneously
designing and permitting a sand retention mechanism or structure that will help retain placed sand. The
design of the retention structure is being developed through a global design competition that is being
led by GHD Inc. and their subconsultant Resilient Cities Catalyst (RCC).
A global call to action was released in February 2023, inviting engineering firms from across the world to
apply to participate in RE:BEACH Oceanside, a Coastal Resilience Design Competition. A Jury and
Advisory Panel comprised of local, state, and national experts weighed in on reviewing initial proposals
from the global teams, with the City and Project Team making the ultimate decision on the finalists,
based on experience, proposed approach and track record of delivering innovative solutions. The
following three teams were selected to participate in RE:BEACH:
-SCAPE Landscape Architecture with ESA and the Dredge Research Collaborative
SCAPE is a New York City based landscape architecture and urban design firm with offices in
New Orleans and San Francisco. The team works to create well-designed, ecologically
restorative and socially engaged landscapes through diverse forms of design. Scape Studio aims
to use this project to bolster the transformative potential of natural spaces.
-Deltares with Deltares USA, and MVRDV
Deltares is a nonprofit, solution-driven Dutch firm which boasts a robust knowledge of major
societal issues and realizes the urgency behind finding equitable, sustainable solutions. Deltares’
mission revolves around working passionately to find answers to some of life’s biggest
environmental questions.
-International Coastal Management
An Australia-based firm that aims to meet the objectives of the project, while also
acknowledging the unique opportunities and challenges of Oceanside’s coastal environment.
From the Gold Coast in Australia to Europe and the Caribbean, the team of coastal engineers has
experience with various technical coastal designs, having completed projects for SeaWorld, the
Gold Coast Waterways Authority, the Nature Conservancy, etc.
Through this process, the Project Team expects the three Design Teams to explore a variety of design
options, including but not limited to dunes, cobble berms, artificial headlands and reefs as examples of
nature-based or nature-inspired coastal features that can work together to create a resilient and
sustainable sandy shoreline. All designs will be guided by the Design Criteria, which sustains a focused
mission to construct an innovative, multi benefit sand retention project on the City of Oceanside’s
beaches that serves both local and regional benefits. Design Criteria were scrutinized by the Project
Team, City Team, Jury and Advisory Panel prior to initiating connections with the global design firms.
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The Design Criteria guidelines were provided for the physical, environmental, financial, social and
regional components of the Project and are included in the Oceanside Design Competition Solicitation
Package (Attachment 1).
The design teams participating in RE:BEACH Oceanside will benefit from the robust information available
through Phase 1 Feasibility Study, which included a historic background and data inventory,
development and evaluation of alternatives, multi-criteria analysis, and a project monitoring framework.
RE:BEACH Oceanside will take place over 6-months, and will culminate with a recommended winning
design, as designated by the Jury/Advisory Panel and Project Team. The winning design will be
presented to the Oceanside City Council for approval in January 2024. Upon a passing vote, the winning
design will move directly into final engineering and environmental compliance with the GHD Inc team.
What sets this process apart from other, more traditional design competition processes, is its direct link
to the engineering design and permitting phases for construction. The ultimate outcome of this process
will be a shovel ready sand retention pilot project, supported by offshore investigations and sampling of
available sand.
To learn more and participate in RE:BEACH, please visit rebeach.org and subscribe to the mailing list to
stay engaged with the competition, learn about upcoming events, and provide input and feedback on
the design concepts. Our first public workshop was held on August 29th, with over 200 people from the
community and region participating in person, by sharing their thoughts and comments on the
preliminary design concepts presented by the design teams. Our next public workshop is the second one
of three workshops, taking place on October 17th from 4-7p at Oceanside Museum of Art.
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Design Brief & Team Solicitation Package
Sand
Nourishment &
Retention
Pilot Project
A Coastal Resilience Design Competition
April 26, 2023
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Design Brief & Team Solicitation Package
For the last five decades, the City of Oceanside (City) has been studying and discussing alternatives
to effectively maintain a sandy shoreline. The beneficial reuse of dredged Harbor sand is used to
annually supplement the beach. This effort, however, has proven to be ineffective at combating
coastal erosion due to the characteristics of the dredged material, quantity available, and timing of
placement, resulting in only northern portions of the City’s coastline benefiting from persistent sandy
beaches. The long term efficacy and sustainability of these efforts are further called into question by
projected impacts by climate change, including sea level rise and storm pattern shifts. Today, there
is no dry sand during much of the year in front of much of the City’s shoreline, posing increased risk
of flooding and damage to businesses and infrastructure, as well as residential communities, which
threatens the City’s economic lifeblood: the City’s visitor and tourism sectors attracted by a sandy
beach.
Through a design competition process, Phase Two of the Sand Nourishment and Retention Pilot
Project invites innovation into the design of a pilot sand retention mechanism that will support a
resilient shoreline in the City. The design shall be one that can be scaled up to benefit larger portions
of the City’s coastal areas and/or other municipalities in the state or region facing similar challenges.
The development of designs will be supported by the Project Team over three Design Rounds,
which will include initial reviews by the Project Team, Charrettes with the Project Team and additional
experts, Regional Briefings, and Public Workshops (see below for more detail). A final review will be
made by a Jury, and their recommendation will be provided to the City Council, who will vote on the
winning design.
Through this process, the Project Team wants to see teams explore and consider a variety of design
options, including but not limited to dunes, cobble berms, artificial headlands and reefs as examples
of nature-based or nature-inspired coastal features that can work together to create a resilient and
sustainable sandy shoreline. All designs should be guided and respond, at a minimum, to the Design
Criteria in the attached Design Brief. The Design Brief provides background surrounding the issues in
the City, current coastal management activities, past investigations into project alternatives (including
Phase One) and provides details on the Design Criteria for the competition.
Three Design Teams will be selected to participate in a 8-month design competition from June
2023 to January 2024. The design competition process is enhanced by numerous public outreach
events and opportunities. Stipends of $25,000 USD will be provided to each of the three selected
teams. The City is actively fundraising to increase stipends for Design Teams, aiming to raise up to
$100,000 USD per team. Once a winning design is selected, GHD will perform a coastal engineering
consistency review to ensure that the approach is viable from a technical and environmental
standpoint. A final recommended design will be brought to the City Council in January 2024. The
selected design will then move into final engineering and environmental compliance phases, which
includes seeking required permits for the project. The winning team will be offered a contract of at
least $100,000 USD from GHD, Inc. to continue to participate and work with the team through the
next phase of the project.
Resilient Cities Catalyst are inviting a limited number of teams to respond to this invitation based
on their past project experience and expertise. Due to the multi-faceted aspects of the Design
Competition, Design Teams are encouraged to form collaborative teams with potentially multiple
firms that encompass experienced professionals that represent expertise in a range of disciplines.
All invited teams are free to partner with each other, and/or identify additional firms outside of this list
to complement their qualifications.
Note: GHD will serve as the project manager for the selected pilot project concept and be able
to provide extensive local coastal processes knowledge and coastal engineering support to the
successful Design Team. Therefore, Design Teams are encouraged to include some coastal
engineering expertise with a majority of the team focusing on innovative, multi-faceted design
solutions.
Overview
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Design Brief & Team Solicitation Package
AECOM
Arcadis
ARUP
Balmori
BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group
Biohabitats
Deltares
DHI
Gensler
Guy Nordenson & Assoc.
International Coastal Management
Field Operations
Local Office
Michael Maltzan Architecture
Mithun
OLIN
ONE Architecture + Urbanism
(ONE)
Oru
Rana Creek
RIOS
Safdie Rabines Architects
Sasaki
SCAPE Landscape Architecture
Schmidt Design Group
Sherwood Design Engineers
Stoss
Studio for Urban Projects
SWA Group
TetraTech
TLS Landscape Architecture
Woods Bagot
WXY
Proposal materials for consideration should be emailed to Resilient Cities Catalyst (oceanside@
rcc.city) by 5PM Wednesday, May 17, 2023:
We understand portfolios and materials can take on multiple formats, we ask that teams include, at a
minimum, the following materials bundled as a single PDF document. The Project Team will evaluate
submissions based on the following categories and corresponding weighting (percentages)
indicated below:
• Project Understanding & Expression of Interest, 15%—(1-2 pgs).
• Project Approach, 30%—with direct consideration and alignment with the Design Criteria
(3-5 pgs).
• Team Qualifications, 25%—team composition, bios and roles, including key team members
from multiple partners, when applicable.
• Portfolio of Relevant Work, 30%—provide 3-5 examples of relevant work.
Proposal Timeline:
• Wednesday, April 26, 2023: Notification of Opportunity
• Tuesday, May 9, 2023 and Wednesday May 10, 2023: Optional Virtual Webinars for Potential
Respondents (at 12pm ET/9am PT and 3pm ET/12pm PT each day), invitations with video
conference links forthcoming.
• Wednesday, May 17, 2023: Responses Due by 5PM
• Wednesday, May 31, 2023: Finalist Teams Notified
The Project Team anticipates fielding questions from potential participants between April 26 and
May 17. Participants should anticipate that the Project Team may reach out for interviews and/or
questions during May 17 to May 31, while proposals are in review.
Invited
Teams &
Details
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Design
Brief
Oceanside Sand Retention Design Competition
The City of Oceanside (City) invites Design Teams to develop a sand retention pilot-
project that builds coastal resilience along one of the most beloved and eroded coasts in
California. On January 25, 2023, the City decided to move forward with a design competition
process to generate innovative, multi-benefit solutions that solve a decades long problem
of shoreline erosion. Each Design Team will work closely with a ‘City Team’ composed of
representatives from key City planning and engineering divisions, as well as the ‘Project
Team,’ led by GHD with Resilient Cities Catalyst, that will provide technical and resilience
expertise and feedback through the process. A formal ‘Jury’—composed of voting and
non-voting members from the local, state, and federal agencies—and the local and regional
community leaders and experts will also be part of the Design Competition process.
Together, these groups provide expertise, guidance, and stewardship meant to validate,
inform, and elevate the designs generated.
In responding to this Design Brief, teams are encouraged to partner with practitioners and
firms, as needed, to approach the challenge of designing a sand retention pilot project in
Oceanside that addresses coastal erosion. The most successful designs will also consider
multiple benefits including habitat improvements, recreational and public use amenities,
and coastal flood mitigation. When teaming, please consider that a great deal of coastal
engineering has been done in Oceanside by multiple parties, and as part of Phase One
of this Project. The Phase One feasibility study is included as supplemental material to
this Design Brief), and the author of that study and project manager for Phase Two (this
Project), GHD Inc., is available as a technical resource to all three finalist teams; to aid in the
development of innovative solutions.
The Design Competition will take place over 8-months, planned for June 2023 –
January 2024, culminating in the selection of a winning design by the Project Team and
recommended by the Jury. The winning design will be presented to Oceanside’s City
Council for approval. Upon a passing vote, the winning design will move directly into final
engineering and environmental compliance phases, with the GHD team. What sets this
process apart from other, more traditional design competition processes, is its direct link to
the engineering design and permitting phases for construction. The ultimate outcome of this
process will be a shovel ready sand retention pilot project.
We are inviting a select list of design firms to respond by submitting a proposal which
includes team Qualifications and Conceptual Approach (see below). The City Team, with
input from the Project Team and Jury, will select 3-finalist teams to go through the Design
Competition. Each finalist team will be provided with a stipend of $25,000 USD for their work
and engagement in the process. The City is actively fundraising to increase stipends for
Design Teams to $100,000 USD. Once selected, the teams will move through three rounds
of design and feedback, including technical and resilience reviews, public workshops,
design charrettes, and regional stakeholder briefings. The final designs submitted by
selected teams will be evaluated based on their technical feasibility, financial viability, and
environmental and social impacts (see criteria below). The winning team will be offered a
contract (minimum $100,000) with GHD to participate with and support the final engineering
analysis, design, and permitting of the pilot project.
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Design Brief & Team Solicitation Package
Table of Contents
1. Project Background
2. Problem Statement
3. Design Criteria
4. Competition
Structure
5. Anticipated
Deliverables
6. Design Timeline
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Project Background
The City of Oceanside (City) has a long and storied history of coastal erosion. Eighty years
ago, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), constructed a Harbor complex that
has directly and negatively impacted beaches in the City. The effect was described as an
“erosional wave” whose effects were said to move down the Oceanside Littoral Cell, which
spans from the Oceanside Harbor to La Jolla submarine canyon to the south.
Over the past 80 years (from the construction of the Harbor to present day), over 21M cubic
yards (cy) of sand has been placed on City beaches to offset erosional impacts. Beach
nourishment sand came from both the USACE’s annual harbor dredging program (13.5M
cy) and one-off, local, or regional nourishment events (7.5M cy). This also includes a limited
volume of sand from the USACE’s Experimental Sand Bypass System that was constructed
in the 1980s in efforts to restore the natural transport pathway that was broken when the
harbor was constructed. This project was unsuccessful due to a myriad of reasons and was
decommissioned within a 5-year period.
The most recent, larger scale projects to take place in the City were two Regional Beach
Sand Projects (RBSP) carried out in 2001 and 2012. These projects added over 300k cy
each of a coarse gradation sand to the City’s sediment starved coastline. Though some
short-term benefits were realized, the sand quickly migrated down coast after placement, as
there are no rocky reefs or headlands that may encourage natural sand retention within the
straight Oceanside coastline. Similarly, in the 2.5 miles south of the pier, there are no artificial
mechanisms in place to retain sand. All these previous efforts have fallen short of providing
the City with a sustained, dry sand beach for recreational enjoyment, ecological function,
and coastal storm damage protection purposes.
The current condition of many City beaches is dismal for beach recreation, with many
areas having little to no dry beach during the majority of the tidal cycle. Furthermore, coastal
infrastructure is at risk with wave events impacting the shoreline with greater frequency
and severity. This has resulted in the need for frequent maintenance and improvements to
coastal infrastructure and shoreline protection systems. Projected sea level rise threatens to
make these conditions worse. A third Regional Beach Sand Project is now being considered
and pursued regionally by the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) Shoreline
Preservation Working Group. Additionally, a dormant USACE mitigation study to investigate
solutions to Harbor impacts has recently been reinitiated after receiving federal funding and
support to move forward. The City is simultaneously updating its General Plan, including
the Local Coastal Program, to aid in providing solutions to coastal erosion from the Harbor
construction. Despite these other ongoing efforts to study and mitigate the City’s shoreline
problems and regional coastal erosion concerns, the City decided to pursue an independent
study in 2021 to understand what opportunities might exist to restore sandy beaches in the
City. This study was led by GHD and was called the Oceanside Beach Sand Replenishment
and Retention Device Project (referred to as ‘Phase One’). The study looked at a multitude
of local, regional, and international project examples as the basis for developing five (short-
list) alternatives to be analyzed to protect beaches from long-term shoreline erosion in an
environmentally sensitive and financially feasible way for the city.
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The five alternatives analyzed were:
• No Project: No Project assumes continuation of the status quo in which Harbor
maintenance dredging is the only program adding sand to the city beaches on a regular
basis. The city would continue to participate in regional nourishment efforts similar to the
RBSP I and II on an ad-hoc basis.
• Alternative 1 - Beach Nourishment: Beach Nourishment assumes a more frequent
beach nourishment program is carried out by the city to deliver 300,000 cy of sand
once every five years, approximately doubling the frequency of prior RBSP efforts.
• Alternative 2 - Groins: Groins assumes construction of four, 600-foot long, rubble
mound groins spaced 1,000 feet apart along the Pilot Reach. The proposed groins are
shore-perpendicular and would extend seaward from the existing rock revetment with a
crest elevation of 10’ MLLW. A 300,000-cy initial nourishment was included to pre-fill the
groin field with subsequent nourishment volumes reduced by about 50%.
• Alternative 3 – San Luis Rey Groin Extension: San Luis Rey Groin Extension
assumes construction of a 350-foot extension of the existing groin to capture sand
moving northward toward the harbor. The sand trapped in this filet could possibly be
used as a source for downcoast receiver beaches. This alternative includes a beach
nourishment component identical to Alternative 2.
• Alternative 4 – Multi-purpose Artificial Reef: Multi-purpose Artificial Reefs assumes
construction of two 1,000-foot long, rubble mound reefs spaced 1,200 feet apart along
the Pilot Reach. Each reef would have emergent and submergent crest sections along
their lengths to dissipate wave energy and potentially create a surfable wave on each
end of the reef. A 300,000-cy initial nourishment was included to pre-fill the reef salient
with subsequent nourishment volumes reduced by about 50%.
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A multi-criteria analysis (MCA) was performed to compare alternatives based on a wide
range of criteria that reflects the diversity of opinions and input received from the outreach
activities. Each alternative was evaluated against 11 criteria, organized into three categories
of Technical Performance, Financial, and Environmental. The results of the MCA indicated
the highest ranked alternative was Groins, followed by Multi-purpose Reefs. These top two
alternatives were separated by 8% from one another in total score, which was meaningful
when considering the sensitivity of the scoring and weighting system. Beach Nourishment
ranked third, about 17% lower than the Groins and 9% lower than Multi-purpose Artificial
Reef. The No Project alternative ranked last with very low scores in the Technical
Performance and Environmental categories.
The result of a robust alternative feasibility exercise, numerical modeling, lifecycle economic
evaluation, and multi-criteria analysis, suggested a pilot-scale Groin concept be advanced
for further analysis, additional public/agency outreach and preliminary design to prepare
for the environmental review and permitting process. It was recommended that additional
analysis of the Groin alternative involve sensitivity analyses on groin length and spacing, the
pre-fill volumes, and sand management systems required to mitigate potential impacts.
Following the completion of Phase One, stakeholders, residents, and several cities to the
south of Oceanside expressed concern about the potential for a Groin project to cause
erosional impacts along down coast beaches. Additionally, there was a desire from the
region, stakeholders, and the public to explore more innovative and/or nature-based
solutions to the City’s sand retention problem. The approach of the Phase Two Design
Competition is to leverage technical data and knowledge gained through Phase One, while
addressing these local and regional concerns and needs.
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Problem Statement
The history of Oceanside’s severe coastal erosion is rooted in a local context of significant
sediment reductions to its coast—Oceanside’s beaches have been disappearing and
along some parts of the coast a rock-revetment is all that remains. The City is not unique
in this challenge, as urbanized watersheds, dam construction, coastal development/
armoring and harbor developments have created significant disruptions to the flow of
sediment to coastlines around the world. These disruptions many times result in the need
to actively manage coastal systems to restore broken sediment pathways with frequent
beach nourishment and use of structures to slow the loss of sand—such as use of retention
systems.
The Design Competition process seeks to inspire solutions to add and retain sand where it is
needed most in the City through innovative and creative concepts. The Design Competition
process is meant to embrace and address the complexity of erosion in Oceanside, as well
as the broader context across the region, with an eye to the broader global challenge of the
21st Century, where sea level rise meets critical infrastructure.
Four Problem Statements have been developed to help establish context around the most
pressing City needs and desired outcomes from this Design Competition. Within each
problem statement, there is consideration for:
• Decades of historic coastal development that has directly reduced sediment supply
thereby increasing the effects of erosion in the City of Oceanside (for example, the
Oceanside Harbor, watershed development, creek channelization, back beach
stabilization).
• Existing coastal management strategies within the City and the County have yet to
result in sufficient stabilization of the beach for both human recreation and sandy beach
ecosystems (for example, Regional Beach Sand Project I & II and annual USACE
Maintenance Dredging of the Oceanside Harbor).
• Within the State of California, traditional sediment retention structures have been
criticized for their potential negative impacts to downdrift and regional jurisdictions,
resulting in an inability to test, build, permit, and finance novel pilot or demonstration
projects as potential solutions.
• The environmental history of Oceanside and the San Diego region, combined with best
available science on sea level rise and future storm impacts, provides high certainty
that, without interventions, erosion and loss of beach width is all but inevitable. There is
greater and greater need for regional (and statewide) demonstration and pilot project
concepts for sediment retention to utilize innovative techniques that provide multiple
benefits for coastal communities.
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The four Problem Statements are below. Design Teams are invited to address a set of
broad problem statements, that when combined with more specific design criteria, enable
innovative pilot design solutions.
Problem Statement One:
How might we design a sand retention pilot project that succeeds in the near (3 years)
to short term (20-30 years) at retaining sand while simultaneously providing ecological
and flood resilience benefits, limiting negative downdrift impacts and impacts to surfing
resources, and is removable if necessary?
Problem Statement Two:
How might a sand retention pilot project open pathways for Oceanside to explore longer
term coastal adaptation?
Problem Statement Three:
How might we successfully build and monitor a pilot sand retention project that informs
future regional coastal adaptation approaches?
Problem Statement Four:
How might a pilot sand retention project be scaled to benefit a greater reach of the City
shoreline?
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Design Criteria
The design criteria are meant to fulfill two core objectives: (1) provide a boundary of the
scope of design for the proposed solution and (2) generate a set of goals that Design Teams,
and their solutions can be measured against. To guide the criteria development, the Project
is focused on a mission:
To construct an innovative, multi-benefit, sand
retention project on the City of Oceanside’s beaches
that serves both local and regional benefits.
Any proposed solution should fulfill this mission, requiring all designs to meet the bare
minimum objectives:
• Align with the community character and history of place within the City of Oceanside.
• Leverage previous analysis and feasibility studies completed to-date.
• Maintain a forward-thinking design that incorporates adaptive capacity of solutions to
future coastal conditions while addressing chronic erosion issues.
• Be technically feasible, financially viable, and environmentally and socially acceptable.
With both the mission and objectives in mind, the design criteria are as follows:
Design Criteria One: Physical
• Designs should be in the coastal zone south of Oceanside Pier, focusing on the City’s
most highly eroded beaches.
• Designs should accommodate or be adaptive to up to 2-3 ft of sea level rise (that
assumes 20-to-30-year design life), with minimal maintenance. The ability to
accommodate or have adaptive capacity to greater amounts of sea level rise would be
scored favorably.
• Identify a clear pathway for scaling of the pilot if it succeeds in its intention.
• Reference known design parameters from sand retention alternatives studied through
the Phase One report .
• Designs should be structured with the ability to perform sand retention and retain
structural integrity under impacts from existing and projected future coastal conditions,
including:
1. Extreme waves (100 yr. return interval – from northern and southern
hemispheres), tides and winds (see companion documents, including
Phase One report).
2. Extreme temperatures.
3. Public use, trampling & vandalism.
4. Performance goals of a particular design should be articulated.
For example:
(a) Retain a particular average annual beach width within a
particular reach
(b) Prevent overtopping beyond the beach at particular thresholds,
such as 100-year total water level (TWL) and sea level rise scenario
5. For any performance goals, teams should define the anticipated time-
scale during which the project would be able to perform as designed.
• Designs should include natural and nature-based features, where feasible, which may
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include onsite or imported materials, and/ or innovative materials designed for ocean
compatibility.
Design Criteria Two: Financial
• Construction estimates for the designs should be presented for initial construction
costs, annual operation and maintenance costs, and removal costs. Creative use or
reuse of materials is encouraged to lower costs.
• Designs should articulate the maintenance activities and cost for design to maintain
key functions such as retaining sand, providing recreational benefits, and/or minimizing
impacts to downdrift sand supply.
• Creative solutions to finance the project are encouraged that fully value the proposed
project’s range of benefits (social, regional, economic, ecological). Especially if
construction costs for designs exceed $50M.
Design Criteria Three: Environmental
• Designs should encourage the rehabilitation of sandy beach habitat.
• Designs should minimize impacts to sandy beach ecosystems and nearshore marine
ecology.
• Designs should be sensitive to where and which habitats may be converted as part of
the design, what enhancements to ecology may occur, and where restoration of historic
ecosystems may occur.
• All design references to ecological benefits should be qualified with detailed information
on habitat classifications, quality, change over time, and uncertainties clearly explained.
Design Criteria Four: Social
• A successful sand retention project should increase usable beach space supporting
coastal access and multiple opportunities for recreation.
• Designs should prioritize preserving or enhancing surfing resources and minimizing
impacts to existing surf resources.
• Designs should seek to increase or maintain the existing aesthetic of the beach.
• Designs prioritize public safety and low-cost recreational user experiences.
• Designs should maximize public benefit.
Design Criteria Five: Regional
• Designs should provide a regional and statewide opportunity to pilot, test, and evaluate
novel sand retention solutions.
• Designs should strive to positively impact the region both directly (i.e., by increasing
sediment in the littoral cell) and indirectly (i.e., by providing knowledge beneficial to how
to best design and implement retention strategies).
• Designs should be particularly sensitive to the potential for sand retention strategies
to impact the flow of sediment through littoral systems and be designed to eliminate,
minimize, or mitigate potential negative impacts to downdrift sand supply.
Oct. 3, 2023 Item #3 19 of 24
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Design Brief & Team Solicitation Package
Project Assumptions:
• Pilot project designs will represent reasonable proof-of-concept sand retention
strategies that can be piloted, scaled up, and/or repeated if appropriate.
• The objective is to create more time and space for the City to develop a comprehensive
adaptation strategy for coastal resources.
• Project designs will assume that 300,000 cy of beach nourishment sand will be
available initially within the project area and then for every five years for ongoing
sediment management within the project area. The design teams can utilize this sand
within their designs and propose various sand placement types within their concepts.
• Project designs will communicate uncertainty of their design’s success.
• As pilots, project designs should be able to be adapted or removed if the project does
not provide its intended multiple benefits over time.
• Project designs should be implementable, and should reflect an understanding of an
ultimate need to be permitted and reviewed based on their adherence to existing laws,
including the California Coastal Act. Throughout the competition, teams will be given
guidance from experts to help ensure this outcome.
Oct. 3, 2023 Item #3 20 of 24
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Design Brief & Team Solicitation Package
Oct. 3, 2023 Item #3 21 of 24
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Design Brief & Team Solicitation Package
Competition Structure
Three selected Design Teams will participate in a Design Competition. Design Teams will
develop innovative sand retention solutions using the Design Brief and Design Criteria as
core guidance. The development of designs will be supported by the Project Team over
three Design Rounds, which will include Internal Reviews by the Project Team, Charrettes,
Regional Briefings, and Public Workshops (see below for more detail). A final review after the
third round will be made by a Jury, and their recommendation will be provided to the City of
Oceanside’s City Council, who will vote on the winning design.
Design Rounds
Each of three Design Rounds will take place over an eight week period. The first four weeks
of each round will be largely driven by Design Teams working independently, although
the Project Team will be available to respond to clarifying questions or requests for more
information at any time. At the end of each four weeks, the Project Team will provide
an Internal Review, which will be followed by Charrettes in week five or six, and Public
Workshops and Regional Briefings in week 8.
Internal Review
To provide initial guidance and feedback to Design Teams, the Project Team will review
submitted materials halfway through each Design Round, and will provide feedback through
a video conference within five working days of receiving materials.
Charrettes
Design Teams will be required to participate in a Charette in the fifth or sixth week of each
of the three Design Rounds where the Project Team, and other project advisors will provide
feedback and comments on progress made on pilot project concepts. These will be hybrid
events, although in-person participation is encouraged if possible in Oceanside.
Charrette One
• Setting the stage, getting input from the City Team and the Project Team.
• Presentations from local groups on the Oceanside community, coastal resources, and
coastal vision for Oceanside and the greater North County San Diego Region.
• Opportunities to tour the coast. The Project Team will provide general information for
teams to take self-guided tours.
Charrette Two
• Design Teams will share preliminary concepts and approaches.
• Project Team and advisors will provide feedback on preliminary design concepts.
• Opportunity for Design Teams to ask questions and gain insight on how to improve
designs.
Charrette Three
• Design Teams have developed refined approaches and concepts.
• Opportunity to gather insight on fine tuning designs.
Oct. 3, 2023 Item #3 22 of 24
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Design Brief & Team Solicitation Package
Public Workshops
The Project Team will host a Public Workshop after each Charette to share the progress on
developing the pilot-project design concepts. The public will have the opportunity at each
workshop to see the evolution of the design process as details and provide comment and
input to assist in refining the approaches. Each Design Team will be required to provide
the Project Team with figures, graphics, maps, and resources as required that can be used
during the Public Workshops. Material requirements will be specified well in advance of each
workshop
Public Workshop One - Exploration of Approach
The first public workshop will aim to gather broad input on the teams’ initial design
approaches. Design Teams will work to gain perspective on community stakeholders’
goals and desires for the coast, and collect directional feedback to inform the designs going
forward.
Public Workshop Two - Refining the Design
The second public workshop will present more developed designs, with specific
components and elements visualized with opportunities for feedback.
Public Workshop Three- Final Designs and Feedback
The third public workshop will feature final designs. Teams will clearly show how stakeholder
input shaped their designs, and why they arrived at the final solutions. Public comment will
be gathered and analyzed, and provided to the Jury and City Team as an input to decision
making.
Regional Briefings
Given the regional interest and potential impact of the Project at various scales, at the end of
each Design Round, the Project Team may organize a Regional Briefing to share updates
with regional stakeholders. Representatives from Design Teams will be invited to participate,
although no new materials would be expected to be developed.
Jury
The Design Competition Jury consists of 10-voting members from various sectors and
interest groups, reflecting community, regional and stakeholder interests in the implementa-
tion of a pilot sand retention project. Additionally, 5-non-voting, advisory members will also
be invited to advise, share their perspectives and participate. Juror’s applied to participate
in this role, and the jury’s composition was established to create a portfolio of expertise and
perspective that is beneficial to the final pilot project outcome. Jurors will be invited to Public
Workshops (though are not expected to attend all). After the 3rd design round, the Jury will
review the final designs, and vote to select a preferred design, and will draft a recommenda-
tion which the Project Team will submit to City Council for a final decision.
Below is a complete list of jurors assembled for this project.
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Design Brief & Team Solicitation Package
Voting Members:
1. Coastal Management Expert—Dr. Lesley Ewing PE, former Sr. Coastal Engineer,
California Coastal Commission
2. Permitting Viability Expert—Dr. Charles Lester, Director, Ocean and Coastal Policy
Center, Marine Science Institute, UC Santa Barbara
3. Surf Resource Preservation—Chris Abad, Director, Oceanside Boardriders Club
4. Nearshore Marine Expert—Dr. Dan Pondella, Professor, Biology; Director, Vantuna
Research Group, Occidental College
5. Nearshore Marine Expert—Karen Green, Division Manager, Marine and Aquatic
Ecosystem Resources, Tierra Data, Inc.
6. Coastal City Representative— Councilmember Dwight Worden, Del Mar City
Council, Chair of SANDAG Shoreline Preservation Working Group
7. Coastal City Representative— Councilmember Joy Lyndes, Encinitas City Council
8. Community Representative—Bob Ashton, President/CEO, Save Oceanside Sand
(SOS)
9. Community Representative—Scott Ashton, Chief Executive Officer, Oceanside
Chamber of Commerce
10. Community Representative—Ernie Prieto III, Local Business Owner (Oceanside
Sea Center), Boat Captain and sits on City of Oceanside Harbor and Beaches
Committee
Non-Voting Members:
1. Federal Agency— Dr. Arye Janoff, Coastal Geomorphologist, Planner, and Manager
2. State Agency—Jeremy Smith, Coastal Engineer, California Coastal Commission
3. Grant Funder—Megan Cooper, Deputy Regional Manager, California State Coastal
Conservancy
4. NGO—Mitch Silverstien, Policy Coordinator, Surfrider Foundation San Diego
Chapter
5. NGO—Curt Busk, President, Buena Vista Audubon Society
Oct. 3, 2023 Item #3 24 of 24
OCEANSIDE
Jayme Timberlake
Coastal Zone Administrator City of Oceanside
RE:BEACH DESIGN TEAM COMPETITIORS
1. Deltares USA (Dutch Team)
- With MVRDV
2. SCAPE (NYC Team)
- With Dredge Research Collective and ESA
3. ICM (Aussie Team)
REBEACH.ORG
REBEACH.ORG
PUBLIC WORKHOP ONE
Deltares + MVRDV
SCAPE
ICM
REBEACH.ORG
PUBLIC WORKSHOP TWO
•OCTOBER 17, 4-7p Oceanside Museum of Art –PLEASE ATTEND
•Major Design Proposed
•Design Criteria
•How design concept(s) meet design criteria
•Downdrift impacts addressed through adaptability
•Public Outreach
•How Public Workshop feedback influencing design
August 29
October 17
December 13
Design Teams want your
feedback to help design
the right solution for
Oceanside and the region!
Public Workshop Two
October 17, 4-7p at OMA
RSVP and learn
more at
participate atREBEACH.ORG